You can't blame the French for being French...

Well Dean asked for my comments on the final game so I must comply. The Italians won their glory, but it was tainted and marred by poor sports on both sides of the game.

Zidane, was by any respect the ideal playmaker in soccer. While he never was the goal leader in any competition, his name was all over the overall success of any team he was on. Clearly he was the catalyst of the wins over Brazil in both 98 and 2006. He was and still is my favorite player of all time. I still try to mimmick his orchestrating and protect the possesion mentality in my own play. He was an absolute genious this time around beating Brazil completely on his own. He simply out-Brazilled the Brazilians. This was not the first time he has let his team down with hot-headedness, but the fact that the incident was away from the play of the game, did not occur b/c of physical attack, and was the friggin last game of his career when he was leading his team at any second into their second goal to beat the Italians and complete an amazing career at the absolute highest honor in the game was a shame. When I saw the replay I knew he would be thrown out and that France would lose. I was disappointed b/c I wanted this great to finish at least with honor in defeat, instead he walked off the pitch for the last time with his head down to the Billion people watching him in awe of what had occurred. It was sad for everybody, b/c we all wanted to cheer him farewell even if in defeat.

As for the game itself, The Italians played a miserable game with the exception of Cannavaro who was brilliant in defense. If there was a defesive play made on the ball, he was forcing the play by positioning or doing the work himself. The Italian goal could have gone all the other way. Materazi was all over Patrick Vierra, the replay showed him clearly holding him down on the header, but was still a fantastic goal. However, the Italians did not make another serious play on goal besides that. The French defense proved to be the best in the tournament with the exception of Barthez the keeper. This guy was lucky that 30 shots weren't scored on him with his silly play. I think that if the Italians that played Germany had showed up, the game could have ended up very different.

As for the other side of the incident, it shows the absolute lack of class by the Italian Defender. I have never been a fan of trash talk in serious sports. I can understand in silly games like fussball, ping pong and card games, but to make stupid comments like the ones Materazi made to stirr the temper of Zidane was just lame. The incident ruined the game, and showed the true colors of both sides. The Italians will lie, cheat and provoke just to win and the French will throw temper tantrums in order to lose. It was sad and a horrible way to finish a great tournament. I was glad that the ref thru him out, I am glad the Italians won b/c of it. At the very least it showed that the ref was fair and that he did a good job. It also showed that even the best players will get thrown out if they do stupid things.